Despite being multilingual, Ashton Clark just isn’t taken seriously.

It’s a sad truth that, people — especially women — who get a lot of attention for their looks rarely get equal attention for their brains. We can only imagine how many people would be shocked to hear that supermodel Christy Turlington Burns has a bachelor’s degree in comparative religion and Eastern philosophy from New York University and a master’s in public health from Columbia University, for example. Now, one slightly less famous lady is struggling to be taken seriously: Ashton Clark, 22, has been altering her appearance (think: tanning, filling her lips, wearing hair extensions, and donning bright blue contact lenses) since she was 16 in an effort to look more like Barbie. But she’s no dumb blonde. In fact, Ashton is a clinical psychology research student at the University of Tennessee, who speaks four languages and plans to obtain a PhD.

Ashton is happy and confident with her physical appearance, which she spends about $1,000 monthly to maintain, but she also takes her education very seriously and wishes others would recognize that. “People are always so taken back when they meet me because I don’t fit into the stereotypical mold they’ve placed me in because of my ‘artificial’ appearance," she told The Daily Mail. “They expect me to be an airhead or shallow.”

But she’s neither of those things. Ashton started experimenting with theatrical makeup when she was a shy teenager. “I had always associated the ‘Barbie look’ with confidence and, being so painfully shy, the possibility of feeling confident and beautiful was very appealing,” she said. “It’s also a look that was so opposite to my natural appearance. I started viewing physical modification and makeup as an art.”

That art and her dedication to it — which she documents on her Instagram page—doesn’t take away from her dedication to school — but she has to go the extra mile to make sure her peers and professors know that. “I always make sure to demonstrate to my professors early on that I’m capable and my makeup hobby does not hinder my ability to do research or write excellent papers,” she told The Daily Mail. “It’s just one of my many interests. Although I think it’s sad that there’s such a stigma in academia against women who appear overly feminine.”

Sure, there’s something to be said for people who drastically alter their appearances in order to be happy, rather than learning to be confident in their own skin — and when she initially revealed her new look as a teenager, her peers made that known. “I got a lot of people telling me that I looked fake and that I should be more natural,” she said to The Daily Mail. But, as Ashton reminds us, what matters most is how you feel about yourself — no matter what anyone else says. “There are so many reasons why some people prefer a more artificial look. It can be as harmless as wanting to look like a doll because it’s fun. People should not be judged for it.”